Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

[Caroleca]

I have been a member of TP for a while as my mom has dementia. This is the first time I have started my own thread.
My daughter has just been told that her MIL may have CJD. The specialist is doing one more test to be able to give the diagnosis. After reading about this, I really don't understand how they can make this diagnosis and the family is in shock. Her husband (FIL) is at his wits end and the sibling know nothing about dementia and thought that she may have some kind of memory loss but this is a hard one to swallow.

My daughter says they think because her symptoms came in so fast...such as not putting a sentence together and not cooking that it is CJD. Anyway, hopefully the next few weeks will give them some answers.

Is anyone familiar with the disease? It appears to be very rare...especially here in Canada. I would like to give my daughter on a good place to get information.

Carole

 

[jenniferpa]

I'm really sorry if this is the case. Not that any form of dementia is good, but CJD is very aggressive and fast acting. I'm not sure about the the things you mention (sentence construction and not cooking) but those problems in those areas could be indicative of any other form of dementia (which isn't exactly good news either). The other bit of bad news is that there is no way to definitively diagnose CJD in people who are alive.

This seems a pretty good fact sheet http://www.alzheimer.ca/en/about-dementia/dementias/creutzfeld-jakob-disease

It doesn't make happy reading I'm afraid.

 

[Caroleca]

Thank you Jennifer. This woman just retired in November at 65. She was a nurse working in a nursing home for many years and absolutely loved her job! So sad. The symptoms have just started in the last two months.